In light of the spread of swine flu, the Denver County Fair officials want to make one thing clear: They’re pig-free.

“We’ve got unicorns. We’ve got zombies. But there are no pigs at our fair,” Dana Cain, fair director, said in a Monday release about the weekend-long event that kicks off Friday at the National Western Complex.

Even the Top Hogs trick pig act can’t attend the second annual Denver County Fair because of scheduling conflicts.

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said it’s important because 29 human cases of a new strain of swine flu have been confirmed in eight states — none in Colorado — over the past year.

Last week, 12 cases were linked to the Butler County Fair in Ohio.

While Coloradans shouldn’t expect pigs at the Denver County Fair, they can still get their fill of livestock at the Animal Pavilion. The area, which has quadrupled in size since last year, will house a wide array of species, including rabbits, bees, miniature goats and Chihuahuas.

The release said all animals entering the fair must go through veterinarian checks.

“So, the only thing the Denver County Fair attendees have to fear … is the zombies … and we’re told they will be appropriately contained,” it said.

Using data from the Dartmouth Atlas – a source of information and analytics that organizes Medicare data by a variety of indicators linked to medical resource use – we recently ranked geographic areas based on markers of end-of-life care quality, including deaths in the hospital and number of physicians seen in the last year of life.

Wednesday morning two independent research teams, one based in the Netherlands and the other in California, reported that the deluge from Hurricane Harvey was significantly heavier than it would have been before the era of human-caused global warming.

Denver’s newest skyscraper will be home to one of the city’s most recognizable home-grown business by the end of next year. Chipotle is moving its 450 downtown corporate staff into the 1144 Fifteenth tower by the end of 2018.